Meat prices on the rise as we head into Memorial Day weekend

It’s not your imagination, the price of meat is soaring as the virus closes processing plants.

Ground beef, a staple of your Memorial Day cookout, is up nearly 10% from this time last year.

For some, not even the rising price of meat is enough to spoil plans to fire up the grill this Memorial Day.

“Smoking a pork butt, have immediate family over at the house and we’re going to enjoy the day,” said Fort Myers resident, Rich Castiano.

Castiano said he was surprised by the rise in price when purchasing meat this year.

“All of a sudden you look at a package and you see how small it is and you go holy mackerel…but I’m still going to purchase it,” said Castiano.

Not only are consumers impacted, but the restaurants you enjoy are also feeling the burn.

“We have to find outsourced products in order to be able to feed the people that come in the restaurant and some of those prices are pretty high,” said Chad Zollinger, the owner of Ten Twenty Five.

Much like his business model for craft beers, Zollinger is now looking to buy his meat in bulk from local farmers.

“We can find that we’re a pretty good community when we work together, for sure,” Zollinger said.

WINK News did some shopping around Thursday and found that on average you’ll pay 40 cents more per pound of ground beef. So if you need to buy three pounds that’s $1.20 more than you would have paid a year ago.

And it’s not just ground beef prices on the rise, many items at the store are seeing increases.

There are several apps that help you find the best deals when going to the store. You can find more information on those apps here.